Transgender Trend: 'Here is why we object to pushing gender identity lessons on to schoolchildren'

Shelly Charlesworth, a researcher with the UK organisation Transgender Trend, said that the whole ideology has “no factual basis” and can be “harmful”.

It comes after a report by school inspectors said that “too many schools/centres avoid completely, or cover with insufficient depth and progression, many of the more sensitive aspects of relationship and sex education", including "teaching on gender and sexual identity [and] LGBTQ+".

It also found that, out of the thousands of primary and post-primary pupils it surveyed, 220 – amounting to some 2% – said their gender identity was “other” (although it looks likely that the true figure was 1.5%, and the inspectors rounded it up).

The inspectors’ report and its call for more “gender identity” lessons was welcomed by the Alliance Party (see embedded tweet), which is just one of many organisations to have called for a compulsory RSE (relationships and sex education) curriculum in Northern Ireland, teaching about LGBTQQIA+ matters, misogyny, consent, and more.

Meanwhile Ms Charlesworth, who describes herself as a former BBC journalist who is now a freelance writer, told the News Letter: "We are concerned the report calls for more 'gender identity' education to be taught in schools.

"Gender identity is a new political concept. It's based on the unevidenced belief that everyone has a gender identity that may be different from their biological sex.

"Children should not be taught as fact that just because they like certain clothes or toys their gender may be different from their sex."

"We agree that children need to be given, as the report says, clear and unbiased information about 'gender identity.'

"But it should be taught that it is a belief system which is not shared by the majority and that there is no factual basis for its existence.

"At present, outside providers and lobby groups are going into schools promoting the false idea that it is possible to change sex, that sex is a spectrum, and that feelings about your gender are more important than what sex you are.

"This is harmful and is leading the unprecedented increase in teenagers, mainly girls with gender distress who may then seek surgery or experimental puberty blocking drugs as an answer to those feelings."

As regards the figure of 2% of pupils saying they are “other” gender, she added that “there could be any number of reasons why a child expresses a cross-sex identity, from autism to being in care, to bereavement or sexual or emotional abuse”.

"All these factors were identified by Dr Hilary Cass, who is leading the independent review into gender healthcare, as being over represented in children who say they are trans or non-binary.

"Teachers are not clinicians and should not take it upon themselves to 'diagnose' a child as trans. They should always refer such children to safeguarding leads, and involve parents and carers."

More from this reporter:

• Here are the DUP deputy leader Paula Bradley’s entire remarks at LGBTQIA+ pride gathering

• Nicola Sturgeon resignation: 'Let this be a warning to woke politicians who deny biology' says DUP MLA

• Penny Mordaunt claims she’s been ‘smeared’ over her transgender stance and insists she never backed ‘self-ID’ – so what did she ACTUALLY say?

• What is in Ireland's new so-called 'thought crime' bill, how many years in jail can you get, and which parties are backing it?